Willard's journey into madness, to Kurtz, ends at Kurtz's compound where he is captured and tortured. After he is released, Kurtz leaves Willard with an oral memory of how he had become this demigod in the jungle, justifying himself and his methods. Thereafter begins what may be one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history. This scene begins with Kurtz's narration asking Willard to tell his son the truth about his life if he is killed, foreshadowing his upcoming death. The last view one sees of Kurtz before his death scene is shadowed in an archway next to a sauntering caribou lead on its way to its own ritual sacrifice. This parallel symbolism continues throughout the scene. Next begins the ritual dancing of the natives, Coppola actually hired a tribe of natives to be in his film, that commence to do an actual ritual sacrifice. Lance has literally "gone native" and is now dressed in loincloth dancing with the natives, symbolizing his own madness. The scene then shows Willard in the patrol boat preparing to infiltrate the compound and terminate Kurtz. In his narration he notes, "they're gonna make me major for this, and I'm not even in their fucking army anymore." In order to complete his mission Willard must metaphorically become Kurtz. The shot then looks upward at the compound at a lion's statue hazed with a golden hue representing Kurtz and his fading royalty. Willard then narrates, "even the jungle wanted him dead. That's who he took his orders from anyway." This line signifies the overpowering force of nature and "darkness" that overtook Kurtz. Willard then slips into the water and in a spectacular shot rises out of the water with hair slicked back and now in the same shape as Kurtz's bald head-reborn again as Kurtz. There is then a shot of Willard kneeling in the darkness as heavy rain and light shines above him, the perfect contrast of light and dark symbolizing moral ambiguity. As in the beginning, "The End" begins to play in the background reminding the audience of how this journey has changed Willard. As the ritual continues, Willard slips into the compound with an ax. Walking down the corridor he comes upon Kurtz, and both are shrouded completely in black making the difference between them miniscule. As Willard chops into Kurtz, shards of light glance upon the both of them, however the only way to distinguish the two gods of dark and light is that Willard wields the ax. The first blow to Kurtz is paralleled with the blows to the sacrificed caribou, showing the viewer that Kurtz is the sacrifice of the  war. As the two sacrifices are felled together there isn't an utterance of sound from neither, as if they both knew their fates to begin with taking their deaths with dignity. Then there is a figure shrouded in darkness the way Kurtz is at the beginning of the sequence, but as the figure walks into the light the viewer realizes that it is Willard taking his place. Willard has become the deranged soldier whose methods have become "unsound", and the transformation is complete while Kurtz, dying, mutters "The horror, The horror." After recovering from his act of violence, Willard rises and peruses through Kurtz's memoirs. Then he sits in Kurtz's chair, once again shrouded in darkness representing his metamorphosis. As the natives look in on the carnage, Willard begins to walk out with ax and memoir in hand. Suddenly in recognition of the new leader, the montagnard army bows down to Willard and he is left to decide whether or not to take leadership of the army. Covered in blood with ax in hand, Willard has become the madman of nightmares as he gazes out upon his minions. As he decides, his face turns into the darkness and is covered half in darkness half in light to represent the moral split between good and evil within him. In a decision that is not entirely explained, Willard steps down from his podium, gathers Lance and returns to the patrol boat. As he walks down, the army stands up in recognition of his rejection of power. Upon entering the boat, Willard turns off the radio showing his dual rejection of both the US army and the montagnard army. Then the boat flows away into the night and once again as in the beginning the giant stone Buddha is shown along with Willard's face, this time right side up, with helicopters and napalm fire in the background. However, this time the Buddha is the dominant figure as Willard's face comes to become a part of the statue. Then everything fades behind the massive statue, symbolizing that the jungle, nature, and darkness will still remain despite the onslaught of civilization. While the screen fades to black, Kurtz's voice intones, "the horror! The horror!"      At Cannes, Coppola said, "It is Vietnam. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane." Like a demigod, Coppola took complete control of this film and invested his entire life into it, and much like Willard never knew the ending of the film until he filmed it. Nature and the darkness nearly consumed Coppola's film. While typhoons destroyed his sets, Coppola almost ruined his marriage and nearly took his own life. "Apocalypse Now" was an experience for every person involved with it. Martin Sheen, overcome by the stress and emotional strain, nearly died of a heart attack. When in the hospital room, he innately knew that whether he lived or died was his choice, much like Willard's choice. "Apocalypse Now" was the product of constant creative processes and much of the acting in the film was improvisational. Brando's character was entirely created out of his improvisational ranting inspired by Heart of Darkness. Aurore Clement perfectly phrased in the newly added French Plantation sequence, "My husband would say, 'I am not sure if I an animal or a god!' And I told him you are both." The ambiguous ending of "Apocalypse Now" implies this same truth, while sinking into the darkness Willard and Coppola discovered that they had the capability for both.
		back